A call to action – women claim equal pay

by Gloria Bell

The Fallacy of Equity: What is at stake for women in the workplace?

Women make up half the population, yet our issues are continually put on the backburner of society. Throughout academia, we argue for equality amongst women and men and while many think that we have come a long way, the reality is we need to take leaps and bounds! Many people are unaware that the Conservative government in January 2009 rejected Bill C-10, a legislation that would address equal pay for equal work. Apparently, wages disparity between women and men is not an important issue to the Conservative party. Attending the National Women’s Bargaining Equality Conference in Montreal helped me understand this issue as well as many more concerns Canadians face in the workplace.

Disparity in wages

Warning: these statistics may shock you. Did you know that women, working full-time and all year long, still earn only 70.5 cents for every dollar men get paid? Women of colour earn only 68% and Aboriginal women an appalling 46% of what men make. These statistics, taken from a Women’s Labour pamphlet handed in the Canadian Labour Congress (www.onceandforall.ca), represent today’s workforce situation for women. The fact is that women have been fighting for equality for centuries. In Canada, it was not until 1918 that the federal government passed an act giving women the right to vote in federal elections. This would not have occurred without the blood, sweat and tears of suffragists like Nelly McClung, Edith Archibald and Helena Gutteridge, who since the early 1900s, fought for women’s voices to be heard in society. With the feminist movement of the 70s, more women entered the workplace, and the fight for equity continued. Women started practicing engineering and other professions traditionally occupied by men. Today we stand on the shoulders of giants, yet the struggle continues. Women need to be on bargaining committees at all levels of their unions to bring this issue to the forefront in discussion. We can write to the government and protest taking Bill C-10 off the table, a bill that would provide an avenue for women to combat pay inequity.

Targeting Poverty

Another focus of the conference was discussing the ramifications of poverty and brainstorming ways to combat them. The majority of low-paid workers are Aboriginal women, immigrant women, women of colour and student workers. Marginalized people are funneled into marginalized jobs. Furthermore, if you work for poor wages, you retire in poverty. One of the ways brought up in the discussion to fight the situation is the Living Wage Campaign.

In British Colombia, the Living Wage slogan is, “Work should lift you out of poverty, not keep you there.” Raising wages of low-paid workers would enable them to afford basic living costs and support their families. One of the proposals of the conference was to bring to bargaining tables, both provincially and nationally, the demand to increase the minimum wage to $15/ hour.

Violence in the workplace

With workplace support, a worker is able to leave a violent relationship. At the conference, a moving story was told by Shelly Poitras, an Aboriginal woman who had the courage to leave an abusive relationship. Poitras, a mother with a young daughter, did not want to raise her child in an abusive home, and decided to leave. Through educational development programs at her workplace she has furthered her education, got a steady income, and is now able to provide for her daughter. Workplace support is essential for women leaving abusive relationships and educational development programs are key for women to provide for themselves and their families.

CUPE 2745 Taking bras

Throughout the conference, various women were raising awareness for their professional unions. A union from New Brunswick made a funny yet poignant statement with their bras. The members of the union – support workers – are planning to wrap their legislative building in their support, literally. This creative measure will draw provincial attention to the important role that support workers play in the workplace.

A call to action

Concrete steps need to be taken to address pay inequity and poverty. A major step already happening in British Colombia is the Living Wage campaign. Students will be walking into the workforce in only a few short years and these issues are as important as breathing. We need to petition the government to address Bill C-10 and use our creativity to brainstorm and implement ways of combating poverty, reducing violence in the workplace and achieving equity.

Gloria Bell is an art history master’s student at Carleton.